To misquote John Lennon: “So this is Brexit, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.”

As we are repeatedly told, Stoke-on-Trent was the city with the highest vote in favour of leaving the European Union in the referendum, nearly 18 months ago.

It’s unclear whether your average Stokie’s feelings about Brexit are still as strong as they were – judging from the pages of The Sentinel, people tend to get more worked up about things like the NHS and housing developments, rather than more esoteric issues such as regulatory divergence and WTO tariffs.

But with the year coming to an end, now seems as good a time as any to take stock and figure out where we are.

Supporters of Brexit argued before the referendum, and still argue, that leaving the EU will present new export opportunities to manufacturers in Staffordshire, including our world famous ceramics industry.

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We still don’t know exactly what doors will open for exporters after Brexit – and it may be some time before we do. Talks on our future trading relationship with the EU are due to start in the new year, but we won’t be able to strike new deals with non-EU countries until we actually leave.

But we do know that the ceramic industry itself is anxious about the potential threats that could come with Brexit, such as the dumping of cheap imports from China. The British Ceramic Confederation has publicly criticised the Government for not taking its concerns seriously enough.

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But as it turned out, the pottery industry wasn’t being unfairly ignored as DExEu hadn’t actually prepared proper impact assessments for any sectors. So that’s all right then.

And if you think my Brexit criticism has been too focused on Theresa May’s Government, that’s because Labour still doesn't seem to have a coherent Brexit policy at all. Labour knows it has to shore up support in Brexit-supporting areas such as Stoke-on-Trent, while simultaneously appealing to the young, largely pro-EU, voters who flocked to the party in this year’s General Election.

Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues have therefore maintained their policy of strategic ambiguity on Brexit – which has often simply meant completely avoiding the issue.

Brexit could yet turn out to be the bright new dawn that so many people in Stoke-on-Trent hoped it would be when they cast their votes in the referendum.